Lietuviškos teisinės romanistikos pradžia ir jos pionierius Antanas Tamošaitis
The Beginning of Lithuanian Roman Legal System Research and its Pioneer, A. Tamošaitis

Summary/Abstract: Based on archival documents, regulatory and other official materials, as well as the press of that time, the article attempts to shed some light on the complex beginning of Lithuanian Roman legal system research. Since the beginning of theUniversity law degree in 1922, the Roman law courses (then divided into history and dogma, the system) were taught with an exclusive focus. However, while assembling the faculty of professors at the Lithuanian university, in the beginning they had to content mainly with practitioners, therefore it was particularly difficult to solve the problem of the Roman legal system researcher that required very specific knowledge. The first Roman law professors that were available were foreigners and the first specialist of this discipline in 1922-1928 became a professor at the Budapest University, dr. E. Balogh. Unfortunately, having been unable to become a good lecturer and having published only one article on Roman law in Lithuanian, he had to withdraw from the position. The most substantial contribution to the successful solution of this academic problem in Lithuania as well as to the formation of Lithuanian Roman legal studies in general was made by A. Tamošaitis, who had a short but a very distinct life. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Lithuania in 1925, A. Tamošaitis was sent abroad to prepare for a professorship. He worked in Vienna under the guidance of the famous H. Kelsen, later in Paris, in Toulouse (here he met and established contacts with Mr. Hauriou), in Bordeaux (where he worked with L. Duguit). A. Tamošaitis completed his scientific mission in Berlin that was crowned with the study of “Historical Law School in Germany,” which later served as a basis for his doctoral dissertation, completed in Lithuania in 1928. The turning point in academic studies of Roman law at the University of Lithuania took place and the basis for the Lithuanian Roman legal studies was made in the fourth decade, and that happened when A. Tamošaitis joined the academic life. The most fertile years in A. Tamošaitis’ pedagogical-academic career were in 1931- 1937. It was during these years of work at the University that several of his original articles (“The role of witnesses and their qualifications in the old Roman ius civile,” “The Roman emperor Augustus caduca legislation,” “The entrenchment of the principle of humanity in Roman family law,” and others) were published, as well as the Lithuanian translation of the three-volume P. F. Girard’s “Roman Law” appeared. A. Tamošaitis was not only involved in academic activities. Recognized as a statesman and a diplomat, he was invited to assist the state in its most important missions. When Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, he was arrested by the NKVD in 1940, July 12, and in the same year he died in prison where he was tortured to death.

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